[Televisionary]

Time to head back to the couch, America. The fall TV season is here and all of your favorite shows—from The Walking Dead and The Good Wife to Dexter and Boardwalk Empire —and a slew of new ones are soon heading to a TV set near you. Will you find Ringer to be the second coming of Sarah Michelle Gellar… or is it the second coming of Silk Stalkings ? Time will tell, but at least your TV favorites are back with brand new seasons, and lots of plot twists. To refresh your memory after the long summer, over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, entitled "The Fall TV Season Begins!," in which Maria Elena Fernandez and I round up a guide to the good and bad times of last season--or in this case, 23 cliffhangers--and offer a peek into what’s coming next this fall.

Twitter should be a tool for audiences to interact with the talent behind their favorite shows—instead, anonymous users heap abuse onto writer-producers for ruining "their" shows. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Twitter's TV War," in which I speak to Community 's Dan Harmon, Bones ' Hart Hanson, and Grey Anatomy 's Shonda Rhimes about the complicated relationship between access, privacy, and angry fans on the social networking platform. I'm curious to know what your take is and whether you side with showrunners or fans. What happens when the dialogue turns ugly? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Over at The Daily Beast, Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice creator Shonda Rhimes opens up about polarizing storylines, repetitive questions from fans on Twitter, and Grey’s creative renaissance in its seventh season. You can read my latest feature, entitled " Grey's Anatomy 's 7th Year Surge," in which I talk to Rhimes about Grey’s Anatomy , Private Practice , and Off the Map (launching January 12th), polarizing storylines, incessant fan questions, Twitter, potential endings, and more. Have you found yourself sucked in once more to Grey's ? Have you noticed a sudden creative resurgence or is it just as good as it always has been? Can there be a Grey's Anatomy without Ellen Pompeo? Head to the comments section to discuss. Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT on ABC.

With so many new fall series premiering over the next two weeks, it's possible to forget that some of our favorites are heading back to the airwaves as well. Can’t remember how Grey’s Anatomy or 30 Rock ended? Head over to the Daily Beast to read my latest feature, "Here Comes the TV Season!" , in which I round-up 13 cliffhangers for returning shows—and offer previews of what’s to come. (It goes without saying: minor SPOILERS aheads.) The series in question? Oh, the usual suspects, including Dexter, The Good Wife, Fringe, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Chuck, Private Practice, Brothers and Sisters, Friday Night Lights, Bones, Community, Castle , and 30 Rock , presented in order of premiere dates. (Which means Chuck is up first.) Plus, you can watch video previews for all 22 new network series , to boot. Which returning series are you most excited about watching this fall? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that Kevin Spacey is in attached to star in Rod Lurie's drama pilot The Crux , about a charismatic cult leader, which is currently being pitched to various networks. (Should the project go forward, Spacey would executive produce with Lurie, Dana Brunetti, and Marc Frydman.) While Adalian reports that talks have begun between Spacey's camp and Showtime (as well as possibly HBO), Deadline's Nellie Adreeva adds that the project is currently being pitched to Showtime, HBO, FX, and Starz, with all four said to be in the running to land the much buzzed project from Lurie ( Commander In Chief ), who will write the script. Timing, however, may be a key factor. "One stumbling block could be Spacey's schedule," writes Adalian. "In addition to various film roles, a big chunk of Spacey's day planner is filled fulfilling (and tweeting about) his obligations as artistic ...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Looks like there's more Lost than we thought. The Hollywood Reporter 's James Hibberd is reporting that ABC has expanded the series finale of Lost by a half an hour, bringing the finale's running time to two and a half hours on May 23rd, after the two-hour recap special, Lost: The Final Journey , and before a special edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live featuring the cast at 12:05 am that night. The decision to expand the series finale was made after executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse completed post-production on the final episode. "The producers of ABC's hit drama have shot so much crucial material for the show's hugely anticipated series finale that the network has agreed to extend the last episode by an extra half hour," writes Hibberd. Which means that we get another half an episode of the series. Lucky, lucky us. ( Hollywood Reporter 's The Live Feed ) STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Ahead of its publication, Entertainment Weekly has released some excerpts from Michael Ausiello's in-print Q&A with former Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl, in which she dishes about why she left the ABC medical drama, Emmygate, Isiahgate, and, well, a heap of controversies. "Yeah, I think so," said Heigl when asked if the parting was amicable. "I think it was a little bit shocking for everybody, and a little bit like, 'Can’t we find a way to work it out?' And I really wanted to, but at the same time I just felt like I couldn’t sacrifice my relationship with my child. Naleigh and I will always be a little bit complicated. I really had to work on bonding with her because I was obsessed with her, but she could really do without me. [Laughs] It was really hard because she loved Josh so much but she just kind of tolerated me. And I want this child to know that she will forever have me in her corn...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Jason Isaacs is heading to network television. After several years of offers, Isaacs ( Green Zone and the Harry Potter films) has signed on to star in a broadcast network pilot. Isaacs, who last starred in Showtime's Brotherhood before it ended in 2008, has come aboard FOX legal drama pilot Pleading Guilty , based on the Scott Turow book of the same name. Isaacs will play the lead, Mack, a former cop and current attorney who is described as "a big handsome Irish lunk" and who investigates the disappearance of his firm's star litigator. Isaacs' attachment removing the casting contigency on the project, which hails from 20th Century Fox Television and Chernin Entertainment and which is being shepherded by Bones creator Hart Hanson. ( Hollywood Reporter ) HBO has given a series order to fantasy drama Game of Thrones , based on George R.R. Martin's beststelling novel series. Project, written by David Benio...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. J.J. Abrams is in talks to direct his NBC espionage drama pilot Undercovers for Warner Bros. Television, marking the first time that he has directed a pilot since the series premiere of ABC's Lost . Details of Undercovers , said to be about a husband-and-wife team of spies, have been kept tightly under wraps but several have described it as a cross between Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity . Project is written by Josh Reims ( Felicity, Dirty Sexy Money ), who will executive produce with Abrams and Bryan Burk. ( Hollywood Reporter ) SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Shonda Rhimes' next Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice crossover will revolve around Eric Dane and Kate Walsh. "Mark summons Addison to Seattle Grace to perform a surgery on [a patient] (a.k.a. Leven Rambin)," writes Ausiello. "The storyline spills over into Private when, according exec producer Sho...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Los Angeles Times ' Show Tracker has an interview with Dollhouse creator Joss Whedon about Season Two of the FOX drama series, which returns on Friday. Asked about how malleable the future depicted in the unaired thirteen episode "Epitaph One" is, Whedon said, "We talked about whether it was malleable or not, and right now we pretty much take it as gospel. But then we have a lot of different opinions about how it gets there and who does what. We're fascinated by the implications of this future, and a lot of this season has been guided by it without being so beholden to it that people who didn't see it won't understand. We were incited by the idea that the abuse of power is more widespread than just this one house." ( Los Angeles Times ' Show Tracker ) J.J. Abrams' production shingle Bad Robot has landed a pilot presentation order from FOX for a half-hour comedy series that's being de...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Cabler Syfy has ordered a 90-minute pilot for Zak Penn and Michael Karnow's action-adventure drama Alphas , which had been previously set up at ABC two season ago under the name Section 8 . Project, from BermanBraun Television and Universal Cable Studios, follows a team of agents who "possess hyper-developed neurological abilities" (read: superpowers). "What we loved about this idea is that it played into a new way of approaching the superhero genre: the idea of ordinary people who have one slightly extraordinary feature about them and are singularly not so special but together can do extraordinary things was very attractive," said Syfy EVP of original programming Mark Stern. Section 8 , which had a six-episode order from ABC, left the network post-writers' strike over creative differences before winding up at Syfy, which ordered it to pilot from the three projects in had in development. ( Hollywood Repo...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Not unsurprisingly, NBC's Chuck has topped USA Today 's Save Our Show poll, scoring 54 percent of the 43,000 viewers who cast their votes in the ten-day online poll. The Warner Bros Television-produced series scored the top spot overall as well and was the most favored choice among men, teens and twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, forty-somethings, whites, Asians, Hispanics, Westerners, Southerners, Northeasterners, and Midwesterners and the fourth favored choice among women as well. (If that's not cross-cultural appeal, I don't know what is.) ( USA Today ) Adult Swim has acquired rights to the original UK series The Office , starring Ricky Gervais, from BBC Worldwide and will air both seasons as well as the Christmas special (which marked the series finale) this summer. Move marks the second deal between Adult Swim and BBC Worldwide, which previously sold rights to comedy The Mighty Boosh to the cabler, which ...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Former Smallville star Michael Rosenbaum and Heroes ' Nick D'Agosto will star in NBC's untitled Justin Adler comedy pilot, where they'll play brothers in the Sony Pictures Television and Tantamount project; D'Agosto will play the family's youngest sibling who brings his girlfriend home to meet his family while Rosenbaum will play the middle sibling, a married man freaking out over his adopted baby. Elsewhere, Noah Gray-Cabey ( Heroes ), Oded Fehr ( Sleeper Cell ), Kyle Riabko ( Instant Star ), and Jessy Schram ( Life ) will star in ABC musical drama pilot Limelight , about the teachers and students of a performing arts institute; Sam Neill ( The Tudors ) has joined the cast of ABC drama pilot Happy Town ; and Rochelle Aytes ( Drive ) will star opposite Rupert Penry-Jones ( Spooks ) in ABC's untitled Jerry Bruckheimer drama pilot, about a team of amateur detectives, where she will play a police officer who...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. By the hammer of Thor! Good news for fans of 30 Rock and The Office : NBC has renewed both series for the 2009-10 season, which means that we're guaranteed a fourth and sixth respective season of each. Given 30 Rock 's comedy win at this week's Golden Globes (and well-deserved statuettes for stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin) , I would have been gobsmacked if NBC hadn't ordered an additional season of the critically beloved series. (press release) Unfortunately, there's no news of the fate of ratings-challenged but critically loved NBC series Chuck and Life , which weren't mentioned in NBC's renewal announcement (which also included another season of The Biggest Loser ). And there's even worse news for fans of ABC's Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Eli Stone . According to Kristin dos Santos' sources, the Alphabet won't be airing the remaining episodes of either series until June at t...